In the manufacture of infant diapers, adult incontinence garments and the like, it is frequently desirable to attach an elastic member to the remainder of the diaper or garment in order to secure the diaper or garment about the legs or waist of the user. Typically, these articles are manufactured by a high-speed process in which individual parts of the diaper or garment are affixed to a moving web of material by adhesive or ultrasonic bonding. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,987,794; 3,990,450; 3,995,638; 3,995,640; and 4,014,338 to Schaar describe such infant diapers having an elasticized waist band.
One problem associated with this process relates to the attachment of the elastic member to the moving web. In prior art machines and processes in which the elastic member is bonded to the substrate web in the stretched condition, there is frequently a tendency for the stretched elastic member to pull away from the substrate web before the bonds become fully annealed. Attempts to solve this problem center around various schemes for attaching the elastic member to the substrate web in an un-stretched condition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,866 and its divisional, U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,747 to Rega describe a process of manufacture whereby an elastic waist member is attached in an un-stretched state to a substrate web in the manufacture of infant diapers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,771 to Pieniak, et al. describes an infant diaper with an elongated elastic strip secure to at least one margin of the diaper at a central portion of the margin, with a unitary, relatively inelastic reinforced region in a corner of the diaper.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,227 to Riemersma discloses a method of applying elasticized garment cuffs in a stretched condition to a substrate web.